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Saturday, June 11, 2011

Humanity+ chairman Ben Goertzel in an interview elaborated on
his recent discussion about the importance of the relationship between
minds and worlds and how that relates to artificial intelligence (AI).
Goertzel says the design of an artificial general intelligence (AGI)
system, in the sense of human-level AI, entails considering not just "a
broader level of cognitive processes and structures inside the AI's
mind, you need to think about a broader set of tasks and environments
for the AI system to deal with." He also says that "the world--the
environment and the set of tasks that the AI will do--is very tightly
coupled with what is going on inside the AI system," which prompts
consideration of both minds and worlds together. Goertzel notes that
imbuing curiosity within an AGI is a fundamental motivator fueling
research. The ability to experience novelty and the gaining of new
knowledge internally is one of the top-level demands incorporated within
his group's OpenCog AGI software system, he says. Goertzel says that
his work with AGI does not seek to mimic the mind of a specific person,
but rather emulate human-like intelligence. "What I'm trying to do ...
is just to make a system that's as smart as a human in vaguely the same
sort of ways that humans are, and then ultimately capable of going
beyond human intelligence," he says. "I'm almost sure that it's not
necessary to emulate the cognitive structure of human beings."